TREATMENT OF WHITE COLLAR CRIME VERSUS TREATMENT OF BLUE COLLAR CRIME IN THE ENGLAND
This research examines differences in the treatment of blue collar and white collar criminals by the legal system in England. An attempt is made to answer questions of both how and why with respect to such differences.
Defining White Collar and Blue Collar Crime
Before attempting to assess the differences in the ways in which white collar and blue collar criminals are treated by the English justice system, it is necessary to define the two classes of crime. In 1961, E. H. Sutherland said that white collar crime was that committed by persons of ôhigh social status and respectability in the course of à occupation.ö In the late-1980s, white collar crime began to be characterized as the ôcrimes of the powerfulö in society. While neither of these characterizations actually define a white collar crime, they do contribute to the creation of a stereotype of the white collar criminal as an individual of high-status, respectability, whose crimes are underreported and rarely prosecuted. Many white collar crimes, however, are committed by individuals who possess neither high-status nor social respectability. It is a definite mistake to assume that white collar crime or white collar criminals are unitary in character. Both come in many forms. White collar crime varies from odometer tampering on used automobiles to political corruption to fiduciary fraud to tax evasion to false advertising and so on and so forth.
One factor that does separate most white collar crime from most blue collar crime is that the harm inflicted by white collar crime is typically not the result of an interpersonal confrontation between offender and victim. Another differentiation sometimes applied in defining white collar crime is its relationship to the concept of capitalism. In this context, there are crimes against capitalism and crimes committed in the cou...